Reimagining Justice Film Screening Series: The Alabama Solution

How does design shape human dignity? The Academy Award-nominated documentary The Alabama Solution (HBO Documentary Films, 2025) examines Alabama’s prison system through the lenses of the built environment, institutional practice, and human health. This event brings together architects, designers, advocates, and justice-impacted individuals into a shared space to confront these realities and discuss the future of justice architecture.

The Alabama Solution exposes the conditions of Alabama's prison system through contraband cellphone footage, investigative reporting, and firsthand accounts. The film reveals the human consequences of violence, overcrowding, inadequate oversight, forced labor, and institutional neglect—uncovering realities hidden from public view.

This screening is a call to action for spatial thinkers and change-makers to examine how correctional environments reinforce isolation and dehumanization—or how they might support safety, accountability, and well-being. Following the film, we will host an open, cross-industry dialogue to bridge the gap between lived carceral experience and spatial design.

The event is meant to bring together a diverse network of experts including designers and architects who are exploring the spatial ethics and responsibilities of justice architecture; advocates & policymakers who are pushing for systemic accountability and operational reform; justice-Impacted Individuals who are sharing lived expertise to ground the design conversation in human reality.

Together, we can explore how lived experience, design practice, and advocacy can intersect to build healthier, safer, and more humane systems.

Speakers:
Danny Devon Dandridge, Founder, The Fishermen Project and featured in the film
Alex Duran, Co-Producer, The Alabama Solution and Program Director, Galaxy Gives
Dana Kaplan, Close Rikers Czar, NYC Office of the Mayor
Charlotte Kauffman, Co-Director, The Alabama Solution

About the Speakers:
Danny Devon Dandridge is a nationally recognized Violence Prevention Professional, Certified Community Practitioner, Credible Messenger, author, and founder of The Fishermen Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to mentoring youth, preventing violence, and creating pathways to opportunity. After spending 19 years incarcerated in Alabama prisons, he transformed his life into a mission of hope, justice, and service. Danny was featured in HBO’s Academy Award-nominated documentary The Alabama Solution, where he risked his own safety to expose the realities of the prison system. His journey took him from a prison cell to the Hollywood red carpet, becoming a powerful symbol of redemption and courage. Today, Danny works alongside communities, schools, hospitals, faith leaders, and policymakers to reduce violence, mentor the next generation, and advocate for meaningful criminal justice reform. Through public speaking, documentaries, and community initiatives, he is committed to proving that a person’s past does not define their future,it can become the foundation for changing the lives of others. “From a prison cell to the red carpet. From incarceration to transformation. From surviving to saving lives.”

Alelur "Alex" Duran is co-producer of The Alabama Solution. He serves as Program Director at Galaxy Gives, leading the foundation’s criminal justice reform initiatives after holding positions at the Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation. Born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx, Alex was sentenced to 14 years in prison at a young age—an experience that led him to establish Transforming Lives, a mentorship program connecting incarcerated individuals with outside advocates to challenge systemic injustice. He holds a BA from Bard College, and serves on the boards of Freedom Reads, the Center for Community Alternatives, and the Medical Justice Alliance.

Dana Kaplan is the recently appointed Close Rikers Czar by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani based on legislation passed by the New York City Council in 2025 requiring a coordinating oversight position. Dana has also served as Deputy Director of Justice Initiatives and Close Rikers at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ), where she led the work of the office to close Rikers Island. Prior to her work at MOCJ, Dana coordinated NYC’s implementation of Raise the Age and co-chaired the Leadership Team on School Climate and Discipline. Before joining city government, Dana was the Executive Director of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, a New Orleans based non-profit legal and advocacy organization, and a Open Society Foundation Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) focused on detention reform. Immediately before her current role, she was the National Director for The Alabama Impact Campaign, the impact campaign to catalyze real world change as a result of The Alabama Solution film.

Charlotte Kauffman is Co-Director of The Alabama Solution. She has worked closely with Andrew Jarecki for the past six years, including as a producer on The Jinx: Part Two. Her previous work includes Hidden Alibi, featured in the Netflix series The Innocence Files.

This film includes content related to incarceration, the justice system, and personal lived experiences. Some material may be emotionally activating. Viewer discretion is encouraged.